Vibration and/or misalignment can lead to a variety of issues in operating equipment. For example, vibration and/or misalignment can lead to excess heat being generated in the operating equipment, loss of efficiency of equipment, increased wear and tear on the equipment, and the like. In some precision processes, excess vibration and/or misalignment can lead to an inability to successfully perform such processes to the satisfaction of an operator.
Typical analysis of such vibration and/or misalignment provides little and/or incomplete information. For example, in rotating equipment such as motors, pumps fans, air-handlers and other shaft driven or shaft-coupled equipment, traditional vibration analysis tools can typically only see one type of vibration or misalignment at a time: parallel or angular. Such information can only provide so much guidance in correcting a detected problem.
In some cases, a user is forced to repeatedly shut down the equipment to incrementally adjust the alignment of the equipment until satisfactory operation is achieved. This can be costly to the system operator in terms of downtime, labor, increased part replacement frequency, and the like. Moreover, even when a user achieves alignment considered to be satisfactory, additional improves may not be realized by the user, resulting in further inefficiencies and/or increasing the likelihood of recurring errors.